All Those 30 Cents Add Up – Why Passive Income Rules

The above is a screen shot showing my monthly Aweber earnings from February 2009 to today. Aweber pays 30% commission on new customers that you refer to them. The key is the 30% is on the monthly billings and it continues for as long as the customer stays with Aweber. I love these types of affiliate programs because it helps build passive income. I have stated many times that passive income is the key to living the Dot Com Lifestyle.

Creating passive income requires you to think long term instead of going for the instant gratification of a one hit sale. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy getting an email saying I made a $1,000 commission on a $2,000 sale. However, I get more excited when I get an email from Aweber saying I earned 30 cents by referring a new customer to the Aweber $1 Trial.

Given a choice between getting a big one time commission or a percentage of sales for life, I’ll take the percentage every time. All those 30 cents add up! In less than two years, my Aweber earnings went from $83.35 in February 2009 to $1,646.99 so far this month. And guest what? It’ll be higher next month!

The best part is this income comes in regardless of the blog. Should John Chow dot Com go under tonight, the Aweber income will keep going. This gives me tremendous security. This security does not come over night however. It took me nearly 20 months to get it to the point where it’s making almost a full time income. The key is to keep at it and think long term. Don’t think of your blog as a get rich quick scheme. Believe me, it’s not. Think of your blog as a growing business and treat it as such.

Instead of always going after the one hit wonders, come up with a solid business plan that offers a mix of products and services that offer some kind of passive income potential. It can be slow and painful in the beginning but in the long run, it will pay off. Most importantly, it will keep paying.

Good post. I’ve always personally preferred passive income too. It’s always tempting to go for the lump sum payout, but in the long run, getting a little from many places consistently is way more profitable!

Or try to find a good affiliate program that not everybody is promoting already – find your niche 😉 Web hosting, seo tools, email marketing, all these are highly competitive. Start to think outside the MMO box 😉 SY

I agree with you 100% John. Passive income is the foundation for any successful marketer, but sadly the market is so saturated with instant offers and people tend to forget the principle points in having a recuring income. 30 cents might not sound like much, but when you get 30% of those 20$ next month, it’s gonna start rolling from there. Thx for a great post 😉

That’s excellent John. I really have tried many different ways to make money online but it really does take the little things to get there. I use Aweber too but they do not have the cheapest plans. You should also check out imnicamail.com. Cheap prices, excellent reviews and it is run by an internet marketer. It also has a really great affiliate program.

I just ‘discovered’ affiliate marketing for myself and I must say I agree, recurring commissions from membership sites etc do add up nicely over time. One I promote pays me $11 / month per member and, even better, it is a site I use and can fully recommend. Compared to this single affi sales like for software and hosting are nice, but – single and non-recurring, SY

Oops, I just checked the Aweber website and it seems they only pay per checque. Is that correct? No option to be payed by Paypal? That might put off a lot of smaller affiliates from non-US countries, SY

Okay
That was informative and is making me wonder how much money have I left on the table. Wow youre making 1600$ wow.
I need to get started with this myself.
Looks like sites like aweber and hostgator are good starts.

Great job John. I have been trying to get my passive income up but I just don’t know what else I can do to get it up there. I have been working at it for about 5 months now but I guess if I just stick it out I should come up with the answer.

"How I Went From Zero to Over $100,000 a Month"

The Original Dot Com Mogul

John Chow, a damn fine person, friend of the community, Ultimate Fighting Championship contestant, member of the Save the Whales Foundation, the man who controls the black market on baby seal pelts and member of the probably yo’ daddy foundation...

John Chow rocketed onto the blogging scene when he showed the income power of blogging by taking his blog from making zero to over $40,000 per month in just two years.